Integration of heating, cooling, and heat pumps in an industrial plant internally or connected to local district heating.

In an attempt to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, it has become even more important to optimise the energy consumption and get most out of the fuels used. In this discussion also comes the emissions of refrigerants, which at some stage will participate in the formation of smog, how to minimise the leaks and what gases to use in the future. This is a very big topic so to narrow it down we have decided to focus on industrial refrigeration systems placed where “waste” heat is used in a district heating system. Traditional industrial refrigeration systems was based on R-22 or R-717 as refrigerant. R-22 has an Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) and is regulated under the Montreal Protocol and most of the alternatives are now also regulated under the Montreal Protocol due to their Global Warming Potential (GWP). R-717 or ammonia has been the preferred refrigerant in industrial refrigeration systems all over the world for many years due to high efficiency and the low price of the refrigerant. Many industrial plants are originally placed outside city limits but by time the cities grow and one day the plant is surrounded by inhabited buildings. This gives problems both with the transport of products to and from the site but also the emissions of refrigerants can become a problem. The use of ammonia scrubbers has been neglected, but in many cities, it is a requirement in any ammonia machine room to use scrubbers.